the name guadalupe

More on La Virgen De Guadalupe from La Voz de Aztlan:

As the Moslems swept through Spain in the 8th century, a great religious treasure was buried for safe-keeping in the earth, in the Estremadura Mountains. It was a much venerated statue of Our Lady holding the Divine Child Jesus that was a gift of Pope Gregory the Great to Bishop Leander of Seville. After the overthrow of the Moorish occupation, the image was uncovered in the year 1326, subsequent to a vision of Our Lady to a humble shepherd by the name of Gil. Our Lady's very special statue was enshrined in a nearby Franciscan Monastery next to the "Wolf River."

The Moslems, during their Spanish occupation, had actually named the river. The Islamic term for Wolf River is "Guadalupe" (Guada = River; Lupe = Wolf). Hence, the famous Catholic image in Spain has been known, since the 14th century, by the Islamic name of "Our Lady of Guadalupe."

But it appears as if that etymology is probably mistaken. A more probable version (Which also makes a nicer story) is:

Guadalupe. A river in the Spanish region of Extremadura was named by the Moors in Arabic wad(i)-al-hub 'river of love', due to the reputedly aphrodisiac qualities of its water. This river gave its name to the original sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe which contains a portrait of the Madonna as a woman with dark, Spanish features, nicknamed La Morenita 'the little Moorish woman', the patron saint of the Spanish world. The Spanish town of Guadalupe in Cáceres province is still a centre of pilgrimage.

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